BF told me he had sex with a prostitute

It was a long time ago (more than 20 years ago), he was very young, on a lads holiday to Amsterdam.

He asked me if I thought bad of him (three times) and each time I replied, "Yes I do think less of you to be honest"

I hate the sex industry I tried explaining to him about coercion, exploitation, abuse, women as commodities etc. He was comfortable with his simplistic view of empowered women choosing to freely sell sex as a way to make good money on the free market. I know that I challenged these views, which he has held on to, unchallenged for a very long time. I'm not sure what he really thinks/believes and I am struggling with the whole thing today.

I am finding it hard to forgive and forget but don't feel that I am in the right place emotionally to make any clear decision about this relationship at the moment (separate, external factors, signed off work etc)

He could easily not told you, OP, and you'd be none the wiser. He deserves thanks for his honesty. One issue is his actions, and the other, his beliefs. It sounds like you are more upset about his beliefs than what he did.

It's difficult in relationships when someone's view is the polar opposite of our own. I.don't think you can force it down him, but you could have a constructive discussion or find a recent media story that demonstrates the other side of the coin. In fairness to him, there are some people who entirely voluntarily become involved in the sex trade. We all know this is very much the minority. He quite naively just hasn't thought about it that deeply.

Mumsnetters would not be at all shocked to realise just how many 'ordinary men' pay for sex. There are constant threads from women partnered with men who do so and this reflects how men's use of prostituted women has become more normalised since sex tourism to Amsterdam and other cities became an acceptable staple of men's stag and lads weekends.

Being realistic about how prevalent this is, doesn't make it acceptable.

OP I think so much depends on what he thinks about paying for sex now that you've made your views clear and he's thought/read about it. I guess I'm surprised that you think his moral compass about this would have shaped so much by the internet that he doesn't access, rather than other influences such as family/friends/previous partners and the mainstream media.

I think I'd feel differently about this if it was a youthful mistake that he regretted on maturity, but as of last night he was still defending it 20 years later. This would make me concerned that those views are quite ingrained in a man who must be in his late thirties or forties and I think it's going to take a bit more than a few conversations and some reading to alter a set of attitudes that go to make up that sort of mindset. While I do think that people can change all sorts of attitudes once they are shown the facts and have the impetus to change, IME it's rarely a Damascene conversion and more of a slow process.

Yes, we're all well aware that many ordinary men use prostitutes, either frequently, occasionally or as a one-off. Most Mumsnetters don't live under rocks.

However, on the flip side, you've have to be utterly disingenuous not to realise that it's a Big Deal. Of course it is. Otherwise, why aren't there knocking shops next to every Gap store, and why don't people - well, men - freely talk about their prostitute use in front of friends and family?

Why did he need to 'fess up' to something done as a one-off twenty years ago? Why did the two of you even have to have this conversation? Why are you completely shaken by it, to the extent of starting a thread on MN about it?

He knows this is A Thing - something that he feels the need to be 'open' and 'honest' about; to exhume the skeletons in his closet for the sake of your relationship. He knows this full well.

So then to play the 'oh, is the sex industry not that nice...?' wide-eyed innocent card is pretty unbelievable, really.

The crux of the issue is, however, that it was 20 years ago. Aeons before you met. Not last week, when the two of you were together and committed. on this basis, and on the basis of his genuine feelings toward the sex industry now - can you get passed it?

His opinions about women in the sex trade earning good money and doing OK for themselves could be a valid one. OTOH it could mean that he really treats women as sex objects and doesn't think much of them (which will include you).

What are his other views about women, what is his history with women (mother, ex-wife, girlfriends). I think you should also listen to your uncomfortable feelings/instincts on this. Do some of his other views or actions give you cause for concern? Is there something about him you don't particularly like?

Show me any one of us who is the same person now as they were a quarter of a century ago and I'll maybe start to try to understand why you think this is 'your' issue. Your reaction and 2 threads on the matter lead me to think that Ophelia and tawse and absolutely bang on the money here.

Sorry, but I'm an 'ordinary man' and even though I have been to Amsterdam many times (from the age of 16 in fact - and that was alot more than 20 years ago ) not once have I thought it would be okay to use a prostitute, simply the term use is a big enough clue as to the dynamics of the situation. Neither, to my knowledge have any of my friends over the years (outside of the armed forces) admitted to using prostitutes.

Having said that, I also wouldn't want to be held to account for poor the decisions that I made when I was 16 either, ask him when he realised that perhaps it wasn't such a neutral act - he must have known there was something not right with it when he told you or else why ask if you thought less of him for it? It didn't take me 20 years to see my mistakes as bad decisions. And twenty years ago from now wasn't the dark ages, the female eunach had been published for 30 years, sexual politics was discussed and debated across all media - film, music, art, TV and attitudes were probably more progressive than they are today.

Just ask him how he feels about it and if his attitudes have changed put it behind you.

I can remember 1992 very well and in fact it was more frowned upon then for men to pay for sex. It hadn't yet been normalised as much as it is now and in those days, the internet and the easy access to paid sex, was in its infancy.

How did this bombshell get dropped? Was it one of those 'you'll never believe what I did when I was a teenager...' type nostalgia trips? Were you talking about prostitution? Or was it completely out of the blue?

Most of us have got some big fat skeletons in the closet that we are totally ashamed of. It's always a risk sharing them with a loved one and often the smart thing to do is to keep your trap shut. So I'd be trying to set this in context, working out why he chose to tell me, judging whether he seemed genuinely embarrassed or remorseful and taking it from there.

Well you have the right to feel appaulled by it, we're all different, I thought when I read your title of the thread you meant while your still together, but 20 years ago, well we all have a past? My ex husband told me about a trip to amsterdam once and yes he had sex with a positute, but he was the most gentle respectful man you could get, obviously not perfect or we'd still be married lol but I'm just saying he respected women, wasn't a cheater or a sex pest, but it was something he did once on a lads holiday. I wouldn't be too hard on him tbh unless there is something else that worries you x

"If a woman is prepared to sell her body for clothes/drugs/champagne lifestyle, then she deserves to be treated as an object. It's her own choice to sell herself - no circumstance on earth would lead her to it unless she was actually prepared to do it."

Even if the woman hasn't been trafficked, I doubt very much the average hooker decided to go into it because they'd get designer clothing. Some women feel that they don't or never will have the skills to do anything else. Some women have hard drug addictions that have long passed the point of being a 'choice'.

"You don't exactly have men approaching normal women and offering them money for sex because they deserve more respect than prostitutes."

No, but I've seen plenty of men treat 'normal' women with a great deal of disrespect. I also know 'normal' women - as in, women who have indeed chosen to work in the sex industry - whom clients would not dare to treat as an object.

Please pick your privilege up off the floor, my dear, you're making a mess.